Racism remains one of our most serious social problems. However, if we take a broad historical perspective, there has clearly been a marked improvement since the days of slavery when prominent intellectuals made statements such as “there is nothing remotely humanized in the Negro’s character” (Hegel, quoted in Fanon 1967:116). This article was motivated by a concern that the modern genomic revolution could revive beliefs in stark differences between racial groups and in this way reinvigorate racism more generally. Specifically, we addressed Duster’s (1990, 2003a) concern that, on being repeatedly exposed to reports of differential racial distribution of genes related to disease, people would generalize from those reports and conclude that racial groups must differ genetically in much broader terms. Duster warned that modern genetic research could thus serve as a backdoor to eugenics.
